


The Botany Bay

by shallwebegin



Series: Kat and the Four Horsemen [3]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-17
Updated: 2014-10-17
Packaged: 2018-02-21 13:45:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2470418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shallwebegin/pseuds/shallwebegin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snippets of what happened before Kat and the Four Horsemen. John Harrison flees Earth with his love, Catherine Beauchamp, and other genetically-modified GenZed survivors. They stumble through a wormhole into the Andromeda Galaxy. With no hope of returning to Earth and a failing ship, they must work together to survive. Thus begins their adventure on the Botany Bay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

This work just contains those stories I'm dying to tell of how Kat's parents survived those early years, lost in space.


	2. Bored in Space

"I replaced the fuse. Is it working?" John Harrison asked. He was laying on his back, crammed under the control panel on the bridge of the Botany Bay. Like everything in the past six months, it reminded him that engineers who had never envisioned living and working on this beast had designed some pretty key components in her makeup. Like leaving room for a full-sized man to work under the damned console when the fuses fried. Again.

He waited for Matt's response but just heard silence. He cricked his neck, trying to look out and sighed. Unless Matt had grown a really shapely pair of ankles, Cathy was bored. One delicate foot started to tap.

Waves of guilt and remorse swept over him. When he had snatched her from the hospital, he had used the Bay's transporter device for expediency sake. Matt and Gregor had already taken over the ship and safely beamed the rest of the party aboard when John had radioed them, asking for help.

The original plan had been to disappear on Earth with Cathy while the others escaped on the Bay and hope that Cheney thought they were on the Bay too. Instead Cathy had been near death and Cheney had come after them with a suicidal urgency and they had been forced to flee with the others.

Even then John thought it was temporary as Cheney would surely be undone by the damning release of his secret files regarding decades of genetic experimentation. A couple months in space and they would be able to return if the crew had second thoughts about reaching the nearest habitable planet... the reason the Bay had been built in the first place.

Instead, they had bumbled into a worm hole that had sucked them into a terrifying vortex and spit them into what Gregor believed was the Andromeda galaxy.

Christ, it could not have gone more wrong. Now, as the ship limped along with bandaid repairs, they were desperately making their way to the nearest planet that might support them before anything more catastrophic failed on the ship. They were still weeks away.

Poor Cathy. She had never fit in with the Nemain kids. She grew up in a loving home, she appeared to have no superior abilities and they were forced to flee before they were ready because Cheney was chasing her. The rest of the crew tolerated her because she was his but he didn't doubt if resources became scarce he would have to fight to the death as she would be the one the rest would be willing to sacrifice.

The others had skills that were at least applicable to their current situation. A movie star and singer didn't really have much relevance on a failing space ship.

And she was bored. For a time he had found several really enjoyable methods of distraction but even his stamina was fading. He sighed again and began to squirm out of his tight spot.

He stood up to see Matt in the copilot chair trying not to grin. Smart ass. He adored Cathy and was amused as hell at John's predicament. John figured he was just jealous because at least they were having sex. Matt was too damned stubborn to share his feelings with Jeff so his own frustration was self-inflicted.

"Hi sweetheart. Did you need something?" he asked, thinking she probably needed to have fallen in love with someone sane who wouldn't kidnap the most beautiful woman on the planet and then nearly kill her in space.

"I want to help," she said.

"Oh god," Jeff said. Katrina snorted in derision and Cathy sent her a Hollywood siren glare that would have silenced a normal person. Unfortunately, no one on the Botany Bay was normal, except maybe the woman standing before him with the pleading expression.

She had been an angel for six months, putting up with the shit from the others and trying to be helpful but being rebuffed at each step. She had been reduced to housekeeping in desperation, trying to find a place for herself in this madness. The other women hated her. The men patronized her and John was pretty sure he would have gone postal in her shoes long ago.

She was too sane to realize that part of the problem was her inherent niceness. Her goodness grated on the rest as a constant reminder of what they had been created to do.

"We're having some trouble with the electrical system. I just need another hour to test the circuits," he told her.

"That's fine. I can help."

"Uhmm." He struggled to think of an answer that wouldn't have him sleeping alone for the rest of his life,

Her eyes narrowed. "I have cleaned. I have tried to cook although that shit the replicator produces doesn't really qualify as food and I have tried to be supportive but other than sex, what exactly do you see as my value to this expedition?"

Oh lord. We are going to do this now, he realized. "Sweetheart, maybe we could talk about this tonight?" he asked as the rest of the bridge crew turned their avid attention to the scene.

"Night? How the hell can you tell?" Her voice was rising and years of schooling at a convent were beginning to fall away as he realized he'd never heard her swear before.

"Well, it's just a saying. We agreed to keep on Greenwich time until we found a new home world with solar markers to recalibrate our clocks to."

She looked at him like he had grown two heads. She finally shook her head and continued her argument. "If I'm stuck on this ship, I need to be part of this. I know you didn't plan on me being here but you weren't supposed to be here either and you have things to do."

"I have two engineering degrees, sweetheart," he reminded her.

She interrupted before he could continue. "And I'm the bimbo. I know. I get that," she said her voice rising. "You have all made that abundantly clear, believe me," she said.

John flinched and wondered why the hell Matt was giving her a thumbs up. Maybe John could distract her. He took a step toward her but the killer look she sent stopped him. His heart froze. He had known the day would come when she would hate him for ruining her life. This was it. He swallowed hard.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. No one thinks that and you are a member of this. It's just..." he faltered helplessly.

She snorted. "It's just that I'm worthless? Bullshit. I'm perfectly capable of learning how to be productive, so teach me." she demanded.

He paused, his heart still iced from fear that he would lose her, and shame that he had put her in this wretched predicament.

Her eyes widened. "Oh my god. You don't think I'm capable? You really do think I'm just good for sex."

He put up his hands to argue with her but she looked ready to kill. He sensed the rising emotions on the bridge. Katrina wasn't smiling now. The brilliant physicist had been used to bed the world's leading scientists to steal their research for Cheney and suddenly she was more sympathetic to Cathy. She knew what that felt like to be used by men.

The mood on the ship was fragile and John needed to get on top of this before it blew up into something much bigger.

"Well fuck you," Cathy said coldly. "You want sex, you can goddam teach me something useful first."

He was pretty sure he was gaping and even though he had sworn he would never use his telepathic powers on her, he reached for her. He was stunned when she slammed her mind shut to him and flounced away in a huff. She moved toward the partition separating the bridge from the hall and outside lift.

Damn. He started after her but she snarled mentally at him and truth be told, he would rather face an army of mutant Nemain forces right now. Maybe if she just had time to cool off?

He saw Matt touch the console and heard the whoosh of the door closing before she reached it. Cathy reappeared. "What's wrong with the damned door?" she asked, indignant.

John gave her a helpless look. She glowered at him as he saw Matt's hand move out of the corner of his eye. Whoosh, the door reopened. Cathy whirled toward it. Whoosh. It shut just as she reached it.

She appeared again, looking livid. Matt looked like he was going to hurt himself not laughing and John wanted to strangle him. Cathy loved Matt so even if John tried to blame him, she wouldn't believe it. He sighed. "I'm working on the wiring issues now, sweetheart. The sooner I get back to it, the quicker it will be fixed."

Her eyes narrowed. Whoosh. Dammit. He was going to kill Matt. She turned and walked to the door. Whoosh.

"GOD DAMMIT! OPEN THIS GOD-DAMNED DOOR - RIGHT NOW!"

John skittered after her. Whoosh. The door opened. If he had any strength left later, he was killing Matt.

He followed her onto the lift as the bridge crew heard her shouting, "Don't you even think it buster!" The lift closed on the string of French obscenities.

"Was that really necessary?" Gregor asked.

"Oh yeah. It was necessary," Matt said, grinning like a fool.


End file.
